The Philadelphia 76ers were expecting great things coming from incoming sophomore forward Justin Edwards this season, but so far, his struggles have become way too frequent to ignore.
Thanks to some incredibly putrid display of shooting (or a lack thereof), the 76ers dropped their foremost preseason game against the Knicks, the first of their two matches with their division rivals in Abu Dhabi. Truth be told, both clubs still had a lot of rust affecting their performance, but Philly just had it a lot rougher than their opponents.
Edwards, who registered 16 minutes of gameplay, managed to finish the game as a -21, easily the worst mark on the team. That should probably not come off as anything surprising if you watched the game, especially since the 21-year-old missed all eight of this field goal attempts, which includes seven missed three-point shots.
As if that is not enough to stand out in a not-so-enviable fashion, Edwards also coughed the ball up thrice. Hence, suffice to say that his offseason struggles — which date back to the team’s Summer League stint — have spilled over to the preaseason.
Justin Edwards could force the 76ers to make a tough call
Edwards was widely expected to serve as the 76ers’ main backup for Paul George and even start games when the 35-year-old inevitably sits out games due to either rest or injury. But at this rate, his projected role may not even come to fruition.
If so, that will force Nick Nurse and his staff to rethink their stance on Edwards, who had an otherwise impressive rookie campaign last season. Profiled as a three-and-D type of forward who can create for himself in spurts, Edwards seemed well on his way to climbing the ranks on the squad.
However, the 76ers do not have the kind of timeline that can empower them to play a waiting game. This team has a more head-on design than most when it comes to trying to win as many games as possible. That said, if Edwards does not break out of his dry spell, his minutes could instead go to Kelly Oubre Jr., who is actually already penciled in for a lot of minutes, and Trendon Watford, who has yet to play but has the makings of a potential small-scale game-changer.
The hope is that this ends up being a gross overreaction to one preseason outing and an overblown attempt to conjure a tie between this and the Summer league, which ended months ago. Yet this is also a reminder that Justin Edwards cannot just rest on his laurels and stay couched in the cozy upholstery of the ideal things he can do in theory.